Featured News

Northwestern Health Sciences University’s (NWHSU) College of Chiropractic is proud to offer students an opportunity to focus on clinical sports care as part of the Doctor of Chiropractic program. The Sports Emphasis, a sports injury management specialization, is NWHSU’s latest effort in responding to increasing interest among prospective students, healthcare practitioners and medical organizations in the U.S. and internationally.

The number of students attending NWHSU because of the sports care opportunities has grown more than 10 percent over the past two years. Also growing is the number of local athletic organizations seeking out NWHSU’s Human Performance Center clinicians to help manage their sports care. The Human Performance Center partners with and provides care to several professional and other high-performance sports teams, including:

The Minnesota Vixen

The Minnesota Freeze

USA Tug of War

Alliance Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

British Virgin Islands Olympic Committee

Concordia Academy

Augsburg College

NFL Alumni – MN Chapter

And more

“We realize that the specialty discipline of sports care is continuing to grow. The Human Performance Center completed three annual surveys of the chiropractic discipline surveying our student body on their interest in athletics and sports care. Results show that approximately 90 percent of the respondents were athletes in high school or college. Fifty percent of those chose the profession of chiropractic because of their experience as an athlete. With the growing demands from our students for more sports care opportunities, Northwestern has responded.” —Dr. Tim Stark, MPhil, DC, DACBSP, ICCSP, CSCS, EMT, FICC, Human Performance Center director

Beginning in their fourth or fifth trimester, chiropractic students can study differential diagnosis, examination and functional assessment, and advanced hands-on techniques. Specific courses include concussion and head injury assessment, athletic taping, pre-participation physicals, advanced lower and upper extremity management, sports imaging and a sports internship. The courses and internship result in a special designation on students’ transcripts and diplomas.

The new sports emphasis comes on the heels of another effort to bring more sports care options to students. The Human Performance Center has worked closely with Concordia University, St. Paul, to allow our doctor of chiropractic students to receive advanced standing credits in Concordia University, St. Paul’s online Master of Science in Exercise Science. The articulation agreement allows our students to save approximately 50 percent of tuition and time.

Those interested in learning more about the Sports Emphasis in the Doctor of Chiropractic program are encouraged to contact the Admissions office at 952-885-5409 or admit@nwhealth.edu.